New Lodgings

People are curious creatures.

I am in a shared apartment and shared room here in Flamingo (oh, near da' beach, mon). Because of my set up I have new roommates for a few days. These are regular students and not CPI chaperones this week.

I am currently listening in on a conversation about a girl and her love for her hermit crabs.  Did you know that hermit crabs have personalities? And they can understand the vibrations of your voice so that they can recognize when you call them by name? I think it's a load of shiitake mushrooms, but she seems convinced...

The other roommate is another student who is convinced he will run with me tomorrow at 5 a.m.

Finally, there is the girl from Holland who informed me that she would never be like me and keep visiting the same country again and again because it's important to see other places. She didn't really give me time to talk about all of the places I've been, and I didn't really care to. Wasn't worth the fight... It only bothered me in the sense that somehow developing relationships and continuing to visit those people and places is wrong.

Anyway, I'm bunked up here until Thursday. Officially off the cleanse as of dinner last night when my boss and I decided to end it. I ordered gnocchi and it was delicious. : )

Trying to get plenty of grad work done before work tomorrow!

Pura Vida,
Jessica Lynn

Gnocchi for my first meal. Que rico! : )

Workin' Hard For My Money

This week has been loca! Somehow, I am busier without my own group than when I am in charge of one.  Maybe that’s because I’ve become the right-hand woman here in Heredia for the week. I’ve been more or less supervising the five different chaperones and their groups, meeting with chaperones from companies outside of CPI, running errands, proofreading things, sorting itineraries and who knows what else, all the while keeping up with grad school and munching on vegetables.

I actually like this position a lot. I meet a TON of people this way, build relations, smooth out bumps and work to ensure the success of our chaperones and the enjoyment of the students who come here!

I have also spent a little more time getting to know the chaperones in the apartment this week which has been fun!

Weekend plans: One more day of the cleanse! (Hermano, I don’t know how you maintain this for 3 weeks when you do it…). Pool day tomorrow (sábado) with my boss! Then on Sunday, I transfer out to the beach for 5 days—getting put up in an air conditioned apartment as well!

Life is not too hateful. : ) I’m finally going to get my Costa Rica tan…

Pura vida,

Jessica Lynn

Daily Delivery of Veggies and Rice : )

Rice Thief

I have a mystery to solve and it involves my brown rice rations for the week.

Normally, I wouldn't mind. But given my constant state of hunger and genuine love of brown rice, I am simply curious as to where it's been getting off to. My agua de pipa supply is also severely diminished, and I probably only drank half of it.

Now, given that I live 4 other chaperones, I can narrow down in a hurry who might be taking my food. First, one chaperone never eats in the apartment, one chaperone just arrived yesterday morning and hasn't been eating the apartment, one chaperone eats with their assigned group mostly and another chaperone likes eggs...alot. But this last one does mostly eat at the apartment.

Up until now, there has been a general consensus that whatever is bought for us is communal and whatever you buy for yourself is yours (unless otherwise asked for). So the other night, one of the chaperones asked to simply try my agua de pipa, and I said, 'sure!' Apparently this meant open season. Last night I came home and had about a half a glass left. For a half gallon, this stuff is roughly $5. Not too thrilled, but I let it go. In this chaperone's fragile emotional state at the moment, I thought maybe the agua de pipa would help her out.

Then today, I'm sitting in our groups office working and I glance around the room and see a container with cucumber and what looks to be brown rice sitting on the desk on the other side of the room. Naturally, I investigate. Those aren't my cucumbers, but that's definitely my brown rice! How do I know this? No one eats rice at the apartment except me.  The container definitely came with the same person who's been snagging my coconut water all week too... Mystery solved.

Today I'm taking a West Coast chaperone to the megasuper and I plan on buying more coconut water. Before I leave, I will kindly ask the chaperone if she would like me to buy her own jug this time. : )

My rice ration for the day.

Contraband in the Gladware container...

Arroz y agua de pipa,
Jessica Lynn

Tico Air Quality

Each morning when I run, I am reminded of the poor air quality that Costa Rica sometimes has to offer, which at times, makes it difficult to breathe.  This is partly due to the unrefined exhaust leaving all of the vehicles here, but mostly on account of the ungodly amount of cologne that the Tico men seem to be wearing.

Happy 4th everyone...

¡Feliz día de independencia!

Pura vida,
Jessica Lynn

Feliz Cumpleaños Abuelito :)

Happy birthday, Grandpa :)

The family made homemade ice cream today in honor of him and his birthday!

Want to know how to bring me to tears almost instantly? Mention my grandpa, and let me begin to tell you the kind of man he was... :)

Pura Vida,
Jessica Lynn

I.Am.Hungry.

I thought about just leaving the blog with that title and nothing else...

Day one was yesterday for the 'cleanse'. Breakfast was herbal tea, lunch was water, dinner was bone broth (a treat!!) and dessert was agua de pipa (coconut water).

Today is looking similar...

So, I will admit that I cheated once yesterday.

Why? Mostly because I ran 9 miles in the morning and given my running background and understanding of fueling the body, I knew that couldn't possibly expend that much energy and only compensate with water and herbal tea for the day. I want to be healthy and I think the cleanse is a challenge, but not to the complete detriment of my body. So at 6:15 a.m. when I came back from my run, I ate a Luna Bar. Since then...nothing but liquids. My stomach was angry with me for the better part of the day. I would be too if I burned 1000 calories and only replenished it with 200. I'm sorry, panza, salvation is coming tomorrow in the form of leafy greens and brown rice. : )

On a positive note, I'm learning a lot of really great and healthy recipes to try back in the States (probably after Georgia though when I plan on housing all kinds of great seafood--including Adam's grilled shrimp).

Grilled shrimp awaiting me in the States

My boss sent me on a mission to walmart last night to get 'provisions' for this cleanse. The produce section of walmart has never looked so appealing as to when you can't touch any of it.

My amiga, Arelys, is pretty sure I'll disappear if I keep this up... : )

Ok, going to attempt some more grad work on an empty tummy--it proved difficult yesterday, but I'm not quite as hungry today!

Family was at the lake all week, and I wanted nothing more than to be there with them. Can't wait to get there when I get back. : )

Tengo hambre,
Jessica Lynn

The Drowning of My Camera

Where My Camera Currently Resides

My camera drowned yesterday from what appeared to be a leaky water bottle. I am quite baffled though, because the bottom of my bag was flooded with water, but very little was gone out of my water bottle. My camera is now quietly resting in a bed of rice, but chances are slim that it will resurrect itself and come back to life. Sigh…I happen to love my camera, so this is disappointing. To add insult to injury (and my novio reminded me), I am carrying two dry bags with me this year—which were otherwise occupying all of my other electronics. I can at least be thankful that my iPod and everything else didn’t go swimming as well. : )

Ironically, water is the only thing I’m supposed to consume today. I can flavor it with limón, herbal tea or agua de pipa (coconut water), but that’s about it. Detox day 1 is proving to be only mildly difficult right now, however, because I woke up at 5 a.m. to run, this could prove to be a long foodless day. Nuts. (Bad choice of wording; it made my stomach growl.)

Ran a nine-miler this morning and it was glorious. No Monteverde hills!! I also managed to avoid the ‘tico shuffle’ again by pretending to be asleep until our resident Tico chaperone here at the apartment had gone out for his exercise. I tried to warn him last night about how far I would be running today, but he seemed undeterred…

Heading off soon to meet up with a West Coast chaperone to run through her itinerary at the Holiday Inn and then take her grocery shopping. I will be buying lemons, tea, coconut water and brown rice (for day 3when I am allowed 1 cup a day). Wahoo!

Hanging out solita at the apartment today : )

Chao pescado,

Jessica Lynn